Tuesday, May 10, 2011

I've made no secret of my adoration of the Australian magazine Donna Hay. Well as a result of regularly pouring over issues of DH, the equally gorgeous Aussie mag Gourmet Traveller, and the blogs of my pals from down under, I've also developed quite a fascination with passionfruit. That vibrant sunny color, that unmistakable flavor, those gorgeous little seeds...I can't but sigh with longing every time I come across such recipes! Thus began my quest to find fresh passionfruit in my local Washington, D.C. area.

I searched high...and I searched low. The interwebs told me these little treasures might be hiding in Asian supermarkets, so I scoured half a dozen to no avail, suffering many strange looks from their Korean managers during the process. My next lead took me to a handful of Hispanic groceries, where I'd heard they might be undercover as "Maracuya." But again I was met with only disappointment. Unexpectedly it was Whole Foods where I finally found my beloved passionfruits, but at $3 apiece I had to walk away.

Fortunately my visits to the Hispanic stores hadn't been completely in vain. Though the photographer in me demanded the pretty seeds only fresh passionfruit could provide, I found quite a lovely substitute in this frozen passionfruit pulp. It's brought the vibrant tangy-sweet flavor I expect from passionfruit to my orange passionfruit curd mini tarts and now to these lemon lilikoi (yet another name for this fruit) bars.

As much as I enjoy passionfruit, I left some lemon juice in this recipe as I really love it's in-your-face tartness. You should of course feel free to use all passionfruit pulp or even all lemon juice instead. As you might've guessed by now, I like my bars on the tart side, so feel free to be a little more generous with the sugar if you've got a bigger sweet tooth than me ;p.

XIAOLU'S NOTES: I like my lemon bars quite tangy so feel free to add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar to the filling if you prefer yours sweeter. In case you're worried, the bars should turn out thicker than in my photo. That slice is thin because my oven is lopsided :(.

To make the crust, combine flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and pulse until the mixture is pebbly. Press evenly into the bottom of your prepared pan. Refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes (optional but preferable. Bake until lightly golden, about 18 to 20 minutes. Set aside crust.

To make the filling, place the eggs and yolks in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest and rub them together until fragrant. Now add the sugar mixture, salt, flour, lemon juice, and passionfruit puree to the egg mixture. Whisk until smooth. Pour this filling over the pre-baked crust and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until just set. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm. Sift powdered sugar over the top before slicing and serving.

Yeah, I bought two for 4 on Whole Foods, the red little ones from Australia. I had to.....but it's an offense to me!! :) I don't understand why they don't import it from Latin America.Thanks for the pulp tip!

This is something i would LOVE to eat.. all of them. Love passion fruit and you have created a divine dessert with citrus and passion:) I have to make this when I come back. a very perfect photograph. Love it how that little extra light is on that slice.

I didn't realise that passionfruit was so hard to come by in the US! Here (Australia) it's everywhere! My parents grow four different varieties in their backyard (which is TINY!). I feel so lucky right now. :P

Gorgeous Xiaolu! I love the combination of lemon and passionfruit, so deliciously tart and tangy, just how I like it.

By the way, if you ever need me to post of some Australian food magazines, let me know. Donna Hay and Gourmet Traveller are my favourites too, as well as delicious magazine. Not sure if you've seen that one.

I love anything to do with passionfruit...I used to have passionfruit vines in my backyard... sweet smelling flowers, gorgeous pulps but I had to scarifice the vines as it became wild, roots spread everywhere even into neighbours' backyard... in other word ~ it became weed.. :(

I so love passion fruit but I hardly find them and you are right about the price!! I too have this tendency to add lemon zest or just a little amount of juice in most of dishes .. like the tartness :) This sure does looks like a gorgeous lil bite to me.

In Tanzania, passion fruit is a speciality that farmers grown towards the end of the year and its sooooooo cheap....M mum makes tons and tons of pulp and freezes it for the rest of the year! I'm going to tell her about these beautiful bars :)

So funny I was at the Korean Mart on Gallows in fairfax today and saw some but didn't get any they were not ripe. Been searching for Passion Fruit for couple weeks now, and walked away just like you from WF. Love your twist on lemon bars. Love anything tangy!! :)

Hi Xiaolu, The tarts are looking absolutely delightful. Loved the new combo of ingredients and the recipe is so nicely made and presented. Saving this recipe of urs and wud love to give ur version a try on the coming weekend. Have a great day….Sonia !!!

These look delicious! I have always loved lemon squares ( tart too!), and have been wanting to make a gluten-free version. Love the addition of passion fruit. We have a lot of Hispanic grocery stores here in San Diego so I'll be on the lookout for the passion fruit purée!

I just love passionfruit but they can be a little hard to find even here. When I am visiting the Big Island I always try and stock. I recently saw some at Whole Foods that had been imported from New Zealand but they were $3.99 each. I have some in my freezer so I will be trying this soon.

I am surprised that you can't get passion fruit easily in US.... But I believe the purees work just as beautifully, I very often use frozen fruit purée myself. The tart looks beautiful! Beautiful photo as usual!

Thank you for suggesting the frozen pulp- I too have searched endless to find passion fruit, all for naught! This seems much more attainable, and I hadn't thought to look for it in the freezer section... Next grocery trip, I'll have my eyes open!

Mmmm passion fruit & lemon, delicious combination! A few years ago we lived in the very north of Australia and I use to grow passion fruit, they would fall off the vines in abundance, sigh! As luck would have it I actually brought some passion fruit this weekend form our local farm store, so I just might attempt this beautiful recipe!!

That looks and sounds delicious ! I love the combination of lemon and passionfruit. I hope to be able to find passionfruit pulp in a tin because there's no chance I'll be able to get the fresh fruit here in Singapore. Thanks for the recipe !

I have never laid hands on a passion fruit although i have drunk its cordial decades ago when Indonesian friends and relatives promoted passion fruit juice enthusiastically. I must one day use them. Your slices are as beautiful as your photography!

Hi Elizabeth -- you can replace the passionfruit pulp with orange juice, grapefruit juice, mango juice, etc. and you'll get bars flavored with those fruits :). You can also just use all lemon juice and make normal mango bars. Since those fruits aren't all the same sweet/sourness, you may need to adjust the sugar. I'd love to hear if you try one of those and how it works out!

These look so amazing! I'm going to take them to a potluck at my school. Many of my classmates, and myself, are vegan though and I was wondering what you recommend to replace the eggs? I've found a couple recipes that use silken tofu, I'm just not sure if that will effect flavor?Thank you! :)

Hi Sarah! I'm so glad you're interested in making these. I admit I've never made them vegan before, but I've heard great things about these vegan lemon bars (using agar) from Veganomicon that you could probably adapt to be passionfruit-flavored: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-lemon-bars/ As a bonus, they're no-bake (well the filling is). Please let me know how it turns out!